With the rising cost of, well, everything, what are you doing to cut costs?

I have taken to baking my own bread and cutting meat out of our dinner once or twice a week. I think we can all benefit by knowing what others are doing and trying out some of their methods.

I haven't done nearly enough yet. Between gas and food prices its like a vice closing tighter and tighter. I have been making sure our leftovers actually get eaten. Cutting down on eating diner out as much. I would love to get some recipes that kids, and husband, will eat for some non meat meals. I have basically stopped any inpromptu outings if they are more than 5 miles from home. We live in Chiefland and used to do a Gainesville run to shop and browse about twice a month but now we are down to about once every other month. It's tough out here right now.....

Non meat meals in my house consist of veggies and pasta or rice. Tonight we had whole wheat rotini (my kids call them springy noodles) with butter and parmesan and green beans. Using leftovers is a priority for me too. I don't buy lunchmeat anymore so my DH will take the leftovers to work.

I purchase almost off my kids clothes second hand. But I have done that pretty much since they have been born. I am picky about it, so they never look like they came second hand.
I have taken a older button up shirt that had amazing fabric and used it to redo my lamp shade. I also bought a $1 can of black spray paint from the dollar general and repainted the lamp. Looks like a whole new lamp now!
With some clearance fabric I had laying around I recovered my son's desk chair and with some silver spray paint from the garage I repainted the bottom so it looks new again.
I am also repainting some other furniture with paint I have laying around the house.
I buy from the family dollar and dollar general more. Alot of the stuff from there isn't that bad and it's cheaper. I stick to buying almost all of my groceries on sale else where.
The dollar tree also has dried fruit trail mix for $1 per bag.The same size bag would be more at walmart even.
I have cut meat down to 2-3 times a week. It's not hard since it's only me and the kids right now and they are not huge meat eaters anyways.
We will have breakfast for dinner or plain noodles with cheese, or PB&J or whatever else strikes us to have that night. Sometimes rice also.
I have cut down all my trips unless I can really justify that trip to Palakta or Gainesville.
I canceled my satelite service, we weren't really watching it. 9 times out of 10, the kids would rather watch a movie we already had.
I will be cutting my monthly cell phone service when the contract ends this fall and going to prepaid. I don't use a ton of minutes anyways.
I take almost all my spare money and put it toward debt. As the economy gets worse, I want to be more out of debt. I am hoping that when it hits harder and maybe the bottom I will be debt free or close to it, I am hoping by doing this it will not be as bad for me financially.
I also am already thinking of Christmas. I know that I won't be able to afford everything at once, so as I see a great deal on something that my kids or family members will like, I go ahead and pick it up. I have my hiding spot for it to save till Christmas. I do this with my kids' clothes also. While most of it is 2nd hand, I also see great clearance deals and get them, even if they are too big for them. Kids grow! (For example I got the cutest pair of Arizona flip flops that were marked $28 for my daughter. They were almost 2 sizes too big. But they were marked down so much they rang up for only $3! And those were brand new! I couldn't resist that deal...they are up in her closet waiting for her feet to catch up.)
When I see something someone else would throw away, I try to look at it and try to imagine another use for it. Then redo the item into something new.
I have my kids into creating stuff. They love to get into my stash of things and create. Sometimes the come up with some pretty cool stuff.
I do alot of other stuff, but I that's all I can think of right now. Saving money is in my blood. But I find ways to do it without sacrificing what is important to me....my family and our quality of life.

I'm with all of you...Tammy, you pegged me...saving money is in my blood, as well. I've mentioned this before on another post, but I just don't buy anything unless it's on sale. AND I have a coupon. I shop the BOGO and I stock up on it if I have coupons on it as well. (Saved $72.00 on Wednesday at the grocery store)!

I buy clothes for family and kids only from the "after season" clearance rack. Probably the only thing in my adult life I didn't get from the clearance rack was my wedding dress.

One thing at holiday times that I started a few years ago was only buying for the kids. Between my husband's and my extended families, we have so many people to buy for at Christmas, it was getting ridiculous. Time, money, energy...I was sapped of all of it. So I finally told everyone let's just stop...let's everyone just buy for the kids, since they're really who the "Santa" aspect of the holiday is for.

Do all banking and bill paying online to save stamps. Sending E-cards and invites to save stamps.

Having kids make and create gifts for grandparents instead of buying something from a store.

Dad cuts the boys' haircuts. Saves $12.00 a pop per child.

There are ways to save on almost everything, if you really pay attention. The one thing I can't seem to rein in on, though, is my electric bill...running the AC...coz this pre-menopausal momma just CAN'T TAKE THE HEAT! But we'll make it for it in the winter, coz the hot flashes will keep momma nice and toasty!